NEW DELHI: The Centre’s direct tax collections, net of refunds, were estimated at Rs 9.45 lakh crore during 2020-21, around 5% higher than the revised estimates of Rs 9.05 lakh crore for the financial year, the government said on Friday.
Both corporation tax and personal income tax collections turned out to be higher than the revised estimates presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget on February 1. Against the revised target of Rs 4.46 lakh crore, corporation tax collections were estimated at Rs 4.57 lakh crore, according to the provisional data.
Personal income tax numbers were better with collections estimated at Rs 4.88 lakh crore, which is over 6% higher than the revised estimates of Rs 4.59 lakh crore.
“Strong campaign for Vivaad Se Vishwas Scheme, use of technology/digitisation and widening of tax base coupled by Tax Collected at Source (TCS) has contributed to higher tax collections. Also, such higher tax collections in the pandemic year correspond to a rebound in the economy and are in sync with higher GST collections,” Samir Kanabar, tax partner at EY India, said.
On March 31, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj had indicated that collections have been robust with GST data showing record mop-up in March. “The numbers are definitely more than what we had expected at the time of the revised estimates. I am impressed by resilience of the corporate sector...,” he had told TOI.
Gross collections were estimated at Rs 12.06 lakh crore. The collections were lower than the budget estimate of Rs 13.2 lakh crore. The last financial year also saw a jump in refunds, which rose 43% to Rs 2.61 lakh crore.
“Despite an extremely challenging year, advance tax collections for 2020-21 stand at Rs 4.95 lakh crore, showing a growth of approximately 6.7% over the immediately preceding financial year of Rs 4.64 lakh crore,” an official statement said.